Apple ships iOS 27.0.1 to fix iPhone 18 Pro freeze and restart bug

ZDNET reported that the restart occurs when an initial Face ID authentication attempt fails and the user taps the "Try Face ID Again" button in the alert. Affected phones then lock up and restart after a few seconds. According to research from 9to5Mac cited by ZDNET, the fault appears when Face ID is used to unlock certain apps and features, including the Passwords app and private tabs in Safari.

A ZDNET writer who owns an iPhone 18 Pro said the problem had occurred twice: on one occasion the phone froze for several seconds and recovered, and on another it restarted entirely. Both times the device was authenticating an app sign-in through Face ID.

Apple has not described the nature of the Face ID restart bug. ZDNET pointed to the placement of the facial recognition sensor as a possible factor. On earlier models such as the iPhone 16 and iPhone 17 the Face ID camera sits in the Dynamic Island, while on the iPhone 18 models it is mounted under the display to the left of the Dynamic Island. During authentication on an 18 Pro or Pro Max, a small white line briefly appears under the time on screen.

iOS 27.0.1 also fixes a color artifact that appeared on photos taken at 2x under certain lighting conditions at f/1.48. Apple said in its release notes that this occurred on a small number of 18 Pro and Pro Max phones. A third fix covers a freeze that can occur when the Notification Center and Control Center are opened at the same time. Because that fault is not limited to the new models, the update is available for all iPhones running iOS 27.

To install it, users open Settings, select General and tap Software Update, then restart the phone once the update has been applied.

iPadOS, macOS and visionOS have also received their first 27.0.1 updates. Apple said only that they provide bug fixes and did not specify what was fixed. The company's security release page lists no security patches for the new versions, indicating they are routine bug-fix updates. Apple confirmed the release supports iPhone 11 and later, iPad Pro 12.9-inch 4th generation and later, iPad Pro 11-inch 2nd generation and later, iPad Air 4th generation and later, iPad 9th generation and later, and iPad mini 6th generation and later.

The iPhone fix follows watchOS 27.0.1, released the previous week to stop the Apple Watch Series 12 and Ultra 4 from restarting at random. ZDNET reported that one user who experienced the problem found an entry in the watch's diagnostic log pointing to timeouts with its Neural Engine.